Adolescent Literacy-Reviewing Adolescent Literacy Reports: Key Components and Critical Questions

There is growing concern that adolescent learners are not adequately prepared to meet the literacy challenges of school and life. To address this concern, a proliferation of reports related to adolescent literacy has attempted to synthesize and translate related research for a variety of stakeholders including educators, administrators, and policy makers. Such reports are essential to recommend components of successful programs and practices but are potentially overwhelming in scope and volume for practitioners. The purpose of this essay review is to identify key components and pressing critical questions from a variety of adolescent literacy reports that will direct improvement in reading for older students. This article serves as a primary review, presenting common threads across the reports related to core instruction for all students, supplemental instruction for adolescent struggling readers, the infrastructure necessary to support improved outcomes, and critical questions for moving forward as a field. Following this core review, threee responses highlight perspectives from research, practice, and policy. First, Elizabeth Moje invites readers to consider the historical and sociocultural dimensions of the topic, discussing both overlooked research that has been conducted, and overlooked topics that have yet to be addressed by research. Next, Lori Digisi provides a practitioner's viewpoint, looking at literacy practices and results in her state, district, and school. Finally, Kris Gutierrez calls for the development of a broad federal literacy policy, one that is inclusive of individuals across the lifespan and is sensitive to the needs of students from non-dominant communities.